I'd like to see a world where everyone is heavily invested.

[Bryce Carmony he/him]

This might be difficult since typically people who are invested are broken (ergo snapping and the like) but i really loved the idea on warbreaker of everyone being capable of becoming an awakener. 

 

The idea came when I was reading a lot on gun control which of course is a hot issue and the argument of "If everyone owned a gun the world would be safer" which I don't necessarily agree with or disagree with categorically but it would be an interesting setting for a cosmere world. Where every single person was as powerful as a mistborn or a surgebinder. 

 

What would society be like? could you have royalty when the bottom classes are just as powerful. Could you have cities when any crazed individual could cause major destruction that you cannot prevent or restrict? would people just live in highly spread out in small hamlets? of course it would depend on what the investiture enabled them to do but I just think would be fun. 

 

 

[Lopen he/him]

I think it would be normal, in a way. If everyone was super powerful then there would be a way to prevent or restrict crazed individuals. It also depends on the magic system. It would definitely be fun to see but I doubt that Brandon would make a society like this just because he has no reason to. There would probably be a bit of investiture usage by everyone in daily life just to make life easier. There would be people who don't know about their powers due to poverty, and people who train everyday to become more powerful. This would be similar to any society with access to magic. There could definitely be cities, more powerful people would rule and protect those who are not able to protect themselves. 

 

EDIT: by poverty I mean that they haven't been educated enough to discover anything.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Lopen

[Pathfinder]

Honestly I think if everyone had the same powers and the same power level, it would be a lot like how life is now. I could theoretically walk up to a random person and beat them with my fists to death if it so took me in that moment. Just like they could have the equal ability to defend themselves. Now that person could work out and be in better shape than me, or have taken martial arts, and thereby be able to defend themselves easily. Just like someone with the same powers as I, could have practiced with them more, or used them in more combat orientated situations. We have society and laws in place to prevent that random occurrence, and if it does occur a means to punish or stop that occurrence from happening again. I think where it becomes iffy is depending on what power system, or powers you are giving people. If everyone was a mistborn, then everyone could counter pushes and pulls, could use copper to insulate them from soothing, and burn chromium when touching someone assaulting them to get rid of their metals. Then its just two people smacking each other up lol. Same thing with everyone being radiants, just better, because everyone would have a nahel bond to make sure they were mostly good people lol. Now if we were discussing a power system where people could just blow stuff up with their minds because (read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac), then either everyone would wipe themselves out, or a sort of mutual assured destruction law would be put into place till technology could be developed to neutralize the powers from people who were insane or a homicidal maniac.  

[TwelfthOfSnackTime he/him]

I imagine that for such a society to not destroy itself and/or their world in the first conflict of any size the magic would need to be relatively harmless. Like some sort of Nature magic or other 'civilian' kinds of magic. If everyone could cause catastrophic damage by themselves any conflict that included multiple individuals that had even a little training would easily escalate, unless there were an even larger number of people who could just as easily repair damaged infrastructure combined really awesome healers.

[Yata he/him]

I'm working on a Story with a similar World, but I stuck myself with the sociological issues of that kind of setting

[Bryce Carmony he/him]

I imagine that for such a society to not destroy itself and/or their world in the first conflict of any size the magic would need to be relatively harmless. Like some sort of Nature magic or other 'civilian' kinds of magic. If everyone could cause catastrophic damage by themselves any conflict that included multiple individuals that had even a little training would easily escalate, unless there were an even larger number of people who could just as easily repair damaged infrastructure combined really awesome healers.

Thats the interesting part. In a world where one upset individUal can destroy a city block what do you do?

[Rasarr she/her]

Thats the interesting part. In a world where one upset individUal can destroy a city block what do you do?

 

You hire someone who can keep it standing, I suppose.    

 

More seriously, though, I kinda agree with Twelfth here in that the magic better be benevolent, though perhaps for a different reason: children. If everyone was born with heavy amounts of magic, a newborn's tantrum could destroy a house. Of course, that could be resolved by either magic manifesting at a later age (the infamously dangerous 16th birthday, anyone?) or via some ceremony, but the latter in turn would again restrict the pool of people gifted with magic (I bet there'd be someone trying to only have "his" people go through the ceremony and restrict access to it for others).

 

Though I guess it's best kept in mind that even "civillian" or healing magic could be put to quite terrifying use; we have stories of mad doctors for a reason...

Edited March 9, 2016 by Rasarr

[Pathfinder]

Thats the interesting part. In a world where one upset individUal can destroy a city block what do you do?

 

 

You hire someone who can keep it standing, I suppose.    

 

More seriously, though, I kinda agree with Twelfth here in that the magic better be benevolent, though perhaps for a different reason: children. If everyone was born with heavy amounts of magic, a newborn's tantrum could destroy a house. Of course, that could be resolved by either magic manifesting at a later age (the infamously dangerous 16th birthday, anyone?) or via some ceremony, but the latter in turn would again restrict the pool of people gifted with magic (I bet there'd be someone trying to only have "his" people go through the ceremony and restrict access to it for others).

 

Though I guess it's best kept in mind that even "civillian" or healing magic could be put to quite terrifying use; we have stories of mad doctors for a reason...

That was actually going to be my next question, assuming these powers involve blowing things up with your mind for instance (the more violent option), then how were these powers gained? Did one day the entire planet wake up and have these abilities? Did the people evolve them as they evolved into homo sapiens? Do you get them on birth, adolescents, or from a certain scenario(i.e. traumatic experience, or initiation)? Those answers would vastly affect the outcome. 

 

Let's say for instance everyone just one day woke up with that ability, regardless of age. Then we would have a philosophical discourse on whether people are inherently good, or inherently bad. Either way there would be a massive amount of life lost across the globe as people realized they have this ability, how it works, and how they chose to use it. I like to believe deep down everyone is inherently good, with bad apples in varying degrees rising up. So I feel although a lot of life would be lost, over a long enough period of time, a homeostatis would be achieved where either those who are good would outnumber those who are murderous, and work to restore order in the pursuit of just being able to live without worrying about being blown up every other minute, or enough people will realize/rise up based on their own self interest realizing if this continues no one will be left as a species or a planet and institute the same rules just to maintain their existence.

 

Now let's say it arose naturally during evolution. That I would lean towards Bryce's earlier comment about living far apart. If these abilities popped up during let's say neanderthal times, then every fight over a potential mate could wipe out the entire tribe. Nomadic solitary lives would be preferable as exploded food is no food for anyone, so the use of abilities would be limited, and territory ranges would be large swaths of land. Actually describing it that way, I am unsure if humans would ever evolve into the society we know today with technology if that was the case. We would never fear predators because we could pop them with our mind. The only tool use would be to hunt or have shelter. Shelter would be fleeting because anytime another male challenges the territory, it could be vaporized in a second. Why spend all this effort on something that could be atomized on a bad day? The biggest limiting factor is the power I am imagining based on the description, you cannot defend against. The only way to win, is be the first one to use it. So the skill, and advantage would be to the stealthy and quick power users. 

 

If you get them at birth, there is the issue that Rasarr brought up, which would result in the tiniest tantrum killing everyone in the area as well as possibly the baby. We would become extinct very quickly lol.

 

If you get them at adolescents, there is more room to work with. The child can be trained in what is expected of them, and schooled in how their power is allowed to be used. There would probably be a lot of psychological tests and evaluations to hopefully determine whether the child would be a risk if left to mature to puberty.

 

If it is from traumatic experience, I could see there be massive monitoring stations to make sure anytime a person may get that power, they are found, and contained for the survival of the rest of the people around.  Especially when you cannot predict how someone will cope with a traumatic experience. It could very well end up "hmmm, my whole life sucks, and now I have a power to make other people suffer like I have......". 

 

Finally if you gain the power from initiation, then there will be a dictatorship or totalitarian regime where only those that toe the line will be granted power.